A Closer Look - Outside

Out of the box, the case looks nice and clean with another layer of protection on the glass panel. Unfortunately, the glass on our sample had numerous perfectly straight and parallel scratches on the rear edge, which you can also see in the picture above. This means the plastic layer was not enough to keep them away from the glass. These blemishes most certainly happened in the factory. In terms of looks, the X3 certainly takes some design queues from cases like the Fractal Design Meshify, for example.


As the name implies, the front of the X3 Mesh is made out of metal mesh with a "crystallized" look. It is supported by a plastic structure, and the whole thing may be pulled off with a firm tug at the bottom edge of the panel. Montech did not add any additional dust-filtering layers, but the front mesh should be good enough at keeping the worst of it out. Three 140 mm intake fans come standard with the X3 Mesh. While they are advertised as RGB, you may only toggle the multi-colored lighting on/off.


The main side panel is made out of glass, which is framed nicely in black and hinged as well. On top of that, Montech has placed a little fabric tab to aid in opening the chassis up. Magnets hold the panel in place nicely. On the other side, you will find a solid metal panel with a pair of classic thumb screws.


Looking at the rear, the PSU bay sports a single set of mounting holes, so that the unit's fan will always be pointing downward. Above that are the seven expansion slot covers, which are of the break-out kind. Thus, once removed, you will be left with a gap. Montech understandably has chosen this route to keep the price down, but one or two separate covers in their accessories bag would have been nice. A sliding cover on the right of the expansion bays is held in place by a unique-looking. flat thumb screw. In the very top, you will find another fan, this time 120 mm and set to push hot air out the back of the X3 Mesh. You may adjust its vertical position to align it with your internal components. There is loads of space above the fan, which should make it pretty easy to install a radiator with fans of its own in the ceiling.


In the top is a magnetic metal mesh cover. Unfortunately, our sample had quite the dent in that mesh, probably due to the mishandling by the shipping company. Underneath of it, you will find an air vent that may hold two 120 or 140 mm fans. By default, this is where the fifth and sixth pre-installed 120 mm fans can be found. With six fans, the Montech X3 Mesh is completely filled with cooling units on all external placement possibilities—a unique element out of the box. The I/O consists of the usual power and reset button combination alongside a separate LED on/off toggle switch. A pair of audio plugs, two USB 2.0, and a single USB 3.0 port round out the connectivity options in here. Nice would have been had Montech simply skipped USB 2.0 and offered dual USB 3.0 ports instead.


On the underside is another basic metal mesh dust filter for the PSU and two of those flat thumb screws holding the 3.5" HDD cage in place.